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Cult of Luna > Salvation > Reviews
Cult of Luna - Salvation

My introduction to the genre. - 91%

stereo_typical213, August 24th, 2009

And boy is it a great place to start! Before I discovered this somewhat obscure album in a local CD store, I had never heard anything along the lines of sludge, doom or post-metal and I only vaguely knew these genres existed. I was intrigued by the cover and heard that the band were a great sludge/post-rock band, so I picked it up, interested in what this new genre was like. This album is awesome. It faultlessly shows polar opposites of music in itself. For example, the opening track 'Echoes' starts with several minutes of a quiet, melancholic guitar melody and 6 minutes in becomes an intense, rambunctious sludge-fest.

Next to the musicianship, the vocals on this album are astounding. They are delivered with so much force and power but are never overpowering the music. Once I heard this mad-man's vocals, I knew this band meant business, which is a sigh of relief in spite of alot of the bands these days, as their vocalists simply don't deliver powerful vocal lines.

The guitar riffs are simple yet compelling, as is the bass lines. The drums go from quiet, basic beats to the sound of buildings collapsing. The production is near perfect, leaving an ample, ear-pounding experience. Yes, the music is repetitive. Yes, to some it may become monotonous and boring, but that is the beauty of it. It captivates it's listener into a mindless trance in the clean parts and roundhouse kicks you across the back of the head with the distorted riffs. The album displays a perfect balance of these two outstanding elements and sends you spiralling into another dimension.

All in all, it is a magnificent musical experience like nothing I’ve ever heard. It's creative, compelling and leaves you in complete awe. I'll be sure to pick up Cult of Luna's other releases now that i've heard this obscure gem.

Our Salvation. - 80%

Perplexed_Sjel, September 14th, 2008

Evolution is Cult Of Luna’s best friend. From first to second and now even to third, Cult Of Luna have evolved their sound to suit their ideals. It worked wonders on ‘The Beyond’, which remained a personal favourite of mine until I heard ‘Somewhere Along The Highway’, which is obviously up next in my Cult Of Luna reviewing system. I have to be true to myself and answer, in my honest opinion, did ‘Salvation’ eclipse the efforts of ‘The Beyond’ when I first heard it? The answer is both yes and no. The evolution, which I like to call the Swedish bands best friend, has taken it’s hold on this particular record, like it has done with the previous two and shaped it into a formidable force within the scene of similar cross over bands. ‘Salvation’, as well as the other two efforts at this time, act like nature does. One moment Cult Of Luna are embracing their audience with sweeping melodies and the next the vocal exploits are acting as the destructive force that nature possesses deep within her psyche. ’Salvation’ is a terrific piece of work, but not the best that Cult Of Luna has to offer. In terms of the career of this band, look no further than the previously aforementioned ’Somewhere Along The Highway’.

However, I believe it is quintessential to assess the evolution of this epic outfit by starting at the beginning and making one’s own way, on a personal journey which the Swedes welcome you on, to the eventual present day material, which will highlight, in full, just how far Cult Of Luna have come since the early days. Looking back on previous works, the self-titled effort began us on our journey across the ambiguous soundscapes which captivated the masses with spectacular splices of melodic joy and defined the ultimate cross over puzzle by incorporating post-hardcore aggressive tendencies and fusing them with other elements of other genres. In essence, since the days of ‘Cult Of Luna’, the self-titled piece, the methods that the Swedes use to create their own individualistic sounds haven’t altered that much. The reality is, Cult Of Luna are clever musicians who’re highly skilled at developing certain aspects just slightly to make it sound as if the band has undergone a complete transformation. This obviously means a shake up in terms of song writing, which has improved greatly over time. Slower chord progressions and like bands such as Neurosis do, an inclusion of different and more experimental elements. For example, the production. ‘Cult Of Luna’ held a much more aggressive stance when it came to the production that entangled the soundscapes, but as the years have gone by, the production has loosened it’s tight grip on the music and allowed for many more types of musical expression.

Songs like ‘Leave Me Here’, which is fantastic by the way, indicate this alteration impressively. The aggressive nature of Cult Of Luna hasn’t declined in any way, it still very much exists, by gives way to better use of sparse vocals -which also includes emotive clean vocals- a heightened emotional core and better use of elements such as the bass and percussion. ‘Salvation’ sees an inclusion of a selection of sparse vocals, which don’t dominate as much as they did in previous years, and on top of this, ‘Salvation’ isn’t afraid to explore the experimental in terms of slower paced songs and much more melodic soundscapes, omitting much of the aggression that drove the songs forward on efforts like ‘Cult Of Luna’. Time has matured this Swedish band and has given them the talents to truly pull off using two guitarists, which is an imperative element of ‘Salvation’ that makes it work tremendously well. ‘Leave Me Here’ is a highlight, in particular, that showcases the talents of the Swedes brilliantly. The intertwining guitars, the much more expansive drums, which don’t rely as much on heavy snare work, the more prominent bass and the more adapt song writing. ‘Waiting For You’, with it’s haunting guitar work and perfect percussion sections is a very good indication of the expansive play that has been used far more often on ‘Salvation’ than, lets say, the first effort. It is important to be able to surprise your audience with experimental semblances like these they really sets one band apart from another.

Passion and pride are the driving elements behind ‘Salvation’ and they never falter. Surprisingly, elements like the keyboards don’t have as much influence as they might have done previously, but still exist to exude the confidence that flows through fingertips and on to the instruments. Lyrically, Cult Of Luna are just as strong as ever with sections of their writing acting as metaphors for their music. The lyrics below, for example, state to me that Cult Of Luna are always evolving, thus making each record sound like the band are born again and the salvation of the audience is the very material put in front of us which underlines the confident approach of the band.

“Leave me here and I'm born again
Leave me here in this void again
Now I am open left for dead
Just like salvation comes in the end.”

Look out for ‘Leave Me Here’ and ‘Adrift’.

One Hell of a Trip to the White Light Beyond. - 100%

woeoftyrants, December 17th, 2006

Blending influences from electronic music such as ambient, noise, and industrial with prog rock and a fistful of melodic, dense, emotional post-metal, Cult of Luna's shining moment, "Salvation," can be appreciated by virtually all metalheads who are looking for a little less "br00tality" and a lot more depth with challenges.

"Salvation" is by no means an easy listen. Snail-paced tempos, thick guitars, ambient soundscapes, and spacy prog passages build up into climaxes of seriously EPIC proportions similar to Isis or Neurosis. (Two very notable influences on this release.) It wouldn't be hard for the average Joe to lose interest after about 2 minutes, but those who are willing to let it all "sink in" will be rewarded gloriously. There is a certain grey and nostalgic atmosphere to the whole album, almost a melancholy vibe; but CoL leave it to the listeners to fill in the gaps. Certain moments can be cathartic, introspective, and blissful while others can be intimidating and monstrous.

Being an experimental band to say the least, CoL's compositions are sparse, sprawling, and dramatic. The opener, "Echoes," kicks off with over 4 minutes of minimal guitar work, soaked in reverb, as low-frequency synths creep in the background; the track clocks in at a nearly overwhelming 12 minutes and 30 seconds, and the other 7 cuts on the album are right around the same length. However, while most bands use song length to display virtuosity or try and sound "epic," CoL spend their sweet time lulling the listener into a world of engulfing electronics, emotional guitar work, and desperate vocals that are closer to post-hardcore than most doom metal; but the vocals and lyrics express the mysterious and open nature of the music perfectly. Bludgeoning guitar chords float over top of one of the most distorted bass sounds I've ever heard; drums are pounding and booming one minute at incredibly sludgy tempos, but can also improvise with jazzy patterns and gentle rhythm keeping. The percussionist here makes good use of different kinds of percussion as well, such as tambourines or industrial pads.

The production on "Salvation" is what you would expect for a band of this genre; clear, crystalline, and LOUD. It's not so sterile that the music loses its nature or emotion, though; the bass and multi-layered guitars have plenty of grit to boot, but you wouldn't think so when listening to the lounge-like beginning of "Waiting for You." The drums have a natural, earthy sound, which I think add a lot to the aesthetic and nature of the album. This album also makes great use of lo-fi effects, spacy reverb, and psychadelic synthesizers.

For those of us who embrace the more challenging and experimental side of metal, "Salvation" is an incredibly rewarding and reflective listen. Find your salvation...

Favorite tracks: "Vague Illusions", "Leave Me Here", "White Cell."

Not for the faint hearted. - 98%

caspian, October 19th, 2005

Once in a while a new style of music comes up, one that challenges the other established genres in any field of music. It's normally similar to the previous stuff, yet an extension of it, often mixed with another genre. The Beatles and the Stones took Rock 'n' Roll and added a bit of R&B into it. Punk was an extension of the Garage Rock in the 1960's. Thrash took NWOBHM, mixed it with Punk and made it faster and more complex. Nu Metal took the industrial stuff of NiN and Marilyn Manson and infused a bit of metal and hip hop into it (and made it worse, but anyway..) and so on and so forth..

Well, this genre that CoL are in, (which still doesn't have a name yet) is one that combines the stoner/doom metal stuff with more ambient noodlings, from bands like Mogwai and maybe even Godspeed! Some of the bands in this genre are on the heavier, more metal influenced side (Jesu, Isis) while some, like Pelican, are more into the mellow side of things. Cult of Luna sits somewhere in the middle of this.

They're probably also the least mainstream of all the bands. Cult of Luna don't twist and turn as much as Isis, indeed a lot of their songs will just be built around the subtle evolution of 2 or so riffs. They don't write in major keys, ever, unlike Pelican. There's little vocal driven stuff, unlike Neurosis's new album. No, Cult of Luna are a very different band, and not for the casual music fan.

The songs in this album are really, really long, with a lot of parts that just never seem to end. The first track, Echoes, has about 4 minutes of very sparse echoing guitars, only playing one note at a time, with nothing else in the mix. It's very haunting, beautiful stuff, but definetly not one for grindcore fans. Leave me here has an amazing mellow beat after the first verse. But, while you would expect it too build up after about 40 seconds or so, it just keeps on going, for about 2 minutes. In the middle of the song. While you would expect it to build up and go back to the heavy-ness, it doesn't. In fact, the slow basically stops to a halt, the drums cut out, the vocals stop, just a mellow riff floating around. Which is a good thing. Cult of Luna are very unpredictable in this manner. There's lots of parts where you go "I wasn't expecting that!" But, they all fit perfectly. Other really damn good mellow parts are the first 6 minutes of Waiting For You, which is also really unpredictable. It builds up for 4 minutes, and just when you're expecting a heavy bit to come roaring in.. Oops! It starts all over again. I thought it was annoying the first time I heard it, but now I dig it. Into the Beyond has a great mellow intro too. It's also long as hell, but it's a great linear build up, driven by a cool bass and drum bit, although I found the cymbal panning a bit gimmicky. Still, it's a great build up, with all these cool tremelo picked guitar lines flying around. In fact, all of the clean parts in this album kick ass. Every single one.

Of course, this is a metal album, right? Well, luckily for us listeners, the heavy parts are really damn good as well. They also go on for a while, but not quite as long, which is a very big relief, because they are really very heavy. While Isis, Pelican, Neurosis etc. often use fairly metal styled riffs for their heavy parts, CoL go for a very strange approach, a kind of hardcore-meets-doom metal style. Really slow, and just straight 8th's for the most part. No tricky riffing, just a straight, superheavy downbeat. The guitars are really distorted, but luckily it's not as bad as their first album. Highlights would include Echoes, which has a fairly groovy kinda riff, slow and superheavy, but something to bang your head too. Leave me Here is a mostly heavy song, with a heavy, kind of swinging riff that changes slightly every time you here it. I thought it was just the same riff again and again, until I tried working it out. Adrift is very damn heavy, with some interesting stuff by the effects guy/s, which really adds to the whole mood. It's probably one of their more drony songs, with the guitars just keeping one steady beat. White Cell sounds almost like a stoner song, except it's just too damn heavy for it. There's definetly an Electric Wizard thing going on there though. Well, almost anyway.

I haven't really mentioned anything about the vocals, but they're fairly monotonous, so I'll describe them here: They're a dry hardcore-ish bark. There's clean vocals in Crossing Over and a bit in Leave Me Here, but that's about it. The lyrics are really good though. Really deep and thought provoking, probably some of the best lyrics in metal. Still, it would be good to hear more clean vocals. The drums, and the effects guys generally are somewhere in the mix. They're fairly quiet throughout the entire album, but they cannot be underestimated. The drummer is very subtle, knows when to bash away and when to shut up, always a good thing. The effects guys are even more subtle, and except in the beautiful ballad-like monster that is Crossing Over, they are very far in the background, doing their thing, but never taking over a song. Why there's 2 of them, I don't understand.

So, to sum up: This album kicks major ass. The clean parts are all really good (I would have raved about Crossing Over's clean parts as well, but thought it would've been a bit too much.) The heavy parts are also really good. Sludgy, superheavy and complementing to the max. Everyone in this places knows what their place is. However, I want to make this clear; it's definetly not for the casual metal fan. The heavy parts you'll dig, but the long, mellow space outs that fill up most of this album, you'll probably hate. But if you're open minded and willing to give this stuff a go, get this album, turn the phone off the hook, lock yourself in a room, and be prepared for a huge journey, a spritual experience, whatever, Just don't put it in your car on the way to work. Total immersion is the only way to fully understand the genius in this album.

Transcendent. - 100%

SculptedCold, February 20th, 2005

This is going to be a very difficult review for me, primarily because although I freely admit when I like or love an album, I try to remain objective enough to describe what it sounds like and illuminate what I think makes it good. The problem is that I am infatuated with this album, and indeed this band, and I fear I might not be able to say much other than fanboy gibberish.

Oh well.

Cult of Luna are often and inescapably compared to Neurosis and Isis, and for good reason. Asides from the dry, rasping hardcore vocals, the long songs that encompass polar opposites of empty, subversive space and dense, oppressive walls of droning guitar serve to identy the three bands on a similar plinth of musical expression. Comparisons are inevitable then, so I will get them out of the way. Cult of Luna are, for lack of a better word, the most direct of the three. Their compositions tend to be easier to follow; they neither weave and twist as much as Isis nor entirely lose themselves in wandering open space like Neurosis can do. Furthermore, Cult of Luna are by far more the most existential and spiritual of the three, in terms of theme and lyrical concent; their themes while rarely literal or corporeal in comparison to Isis, never go to the entirely abstract and confusingly imagistic and symbolic excesses of Neurosis. In defining what makes Cult of Luna arguably better in comparison to these bands, we come to an exposition of those qualities that make them stand-out.

Compositionally, Cult of Luna are mostly linear but quite simple. As in The Watchtower from their previous monster, The Beyond, primary melodic themes and monolithic riffs are recursive in nature, generally appearing twice or three times in a song, but while saying this, and that the compositions are simple, the initial and lasting impression of course is the opposite. The lengthy spaces explored within the songs leaves plenty of air for these recurrent elements to breathe, make their presence felt, and powerfully, without coming across as structurally insipid as choruses, while the depth and density of the music when it starts hitting hard is a perfect contrast. It is perfect though because it is never a forced contrast, and this is where Cult of Luna's real songwriting strength lies; the contrast is the result of thorough attention to effective progressiveness. Instead of spending five minutes of near silence and quiet, whirling melodies, and then bursting into entirely unrelated heaviness, when Cult of Luna go from one to the other, it is a gradual and noticeable shift between related and complentary discrepancies in mood expressiveness. The opener, Echoes is an archetypal example of this, having five minutes of opening quiet melody that is slowly added to, and then very gradually subverted into a faster pace as bass and drums slowly filter into new riff patterns, and even when the heaviness comes in, it itself goes through a few cycles before a subtle but profound electronic sample introduces it into a fuller and more complete heaviness, and then Klas' dry and harrowing yell comes in to finish the entirety of the band's involvement. It is remarkably simple but astonishingly effective linear songwriting. Most of the tracks play around with this format, some begin heavy and gradually introduce more and more melodic and atmospheric elements as the song comes to a close, such as Into The Beyond, while others such as Leave Me Here and Adrift are melodic and heavy in equal measure throughout, but generally and memorably, Cult of Luna's sonic identity lies in the extended buildup and release of climaxes, and the breathtaking melodies featured in each song that outshine anything Neurosis or Isis have ever done. Of course, that comes with the expense of not being as 'heavy' as Neurosis, but where Neurosis' heaviness lies in the abrasive drone of heavy guitars, Cult of Luna utilise massive chunky detuned guitar riffs and a suitably plodding drum beat to match, although a sense of edgy restraint and 'falling over itself' characterises these heavy guitar walls further. Where other bands drag these heavy sections out to droning, exhaustive extents, Cult of Luna either develop their riffs and melodies or don't play the same thing long enough to bore. The lyrics, as noted, have their own character, and in each song progress from images of mentally conceived corporeal abandonment through to spiritual realisation, this spiritual side of the lyrics melancholically walking an ambiguous line between salvation and damnation. The lyrics are perfectly suited to the monotone, trapped agony of Klas' vocals and the cathertic contrasts between violence and serenity in the music, the result being a cohesive and immensely satisfying gel between ideas and execution.

When it comes down to it, this is just some of the most thoughtful and depthful music being written today. Listeners who enjoy bands such as Neurosis, Isis or Pelican would be well advised to invest in Cult of Luna, although anyone with perseverence should try them anyway.

Incredible... - 95%

krozza, October 21st, 2004

And I thought ‘The Beyond’ was a sprawling epic! Sweden’s Cult of Luna made a massive impression in 2003 – the expansive immensity captured on ‘The Beyond’ had fans and critics’ alike singing huge praises for the band. In terms of style, they rank along side only two other peers – Neurosis and Isis. Cult of Luna is indeed that good. Having established themselves as a serious heavyweight in the post hardcore scene, Cult of Luna must have felt some sort of pressure coming into the writing of ‘Salvation’. The strength of ‘The Beyond’ made it pretty hard to top in my eyes. The question I (and everyone else for that matter) wanted answered, was what would they do next?

Listening to ‘Salvation’ over the past month or so, it is clear that Cult of Luna have opted to move even further into the wandering, meandering vastness of soundtrack like movements that their first two discs only dabbled in. It’s not like you’ve never heard Cult of Luna do this stuff before, it’s just that there is more of it - More daring sparseness, more air; more epic; more stirring of the soul (particularly with the subtle melodic elements). And then there’s the other side to their style – dark, brooding heaviness. It hits like a sledgehammer. The trade off between their heavy, low-slung wall of sound with gentle, lighter moments of serenity is classic Cult of Luna. The result is a devastating clamor that provides both sensitivity and rage in equal measure. Neurosis and Isis are masters at it. With their own inimitable style Cult of Luna move into the same class.

Like ‘The Beyond’, Cult of Luna continues to explore vast musical territories. Their music has much less to do with actual ‘songs’ than they are mood-inducing soundtracks. The typical COL compositions exist for the listener to ‘get lost’ in. There is no reliance on choruses, no typical structure to cling to. And they are long and epic. The colossal opening track ‘Echoes’ only rests after an exhaustive 12 minutes, the rest push double-digit time for an eight-track disc that clock in at 74 minutes. Needless to say, ‘Salvation’ requires patience. It is most certainly not for everyone. Certainly with repeated listening, those who thrive on this sort of vast musical playing field will revel in the truly gratifying enormity that COL’s music conveys.

It is possible that ‘Salvation’ is an even more ambitious, some might say pretentious album than ‘The Beyond’. There is a real air of confidence about the way this album has been constructed and delivered. Some folks might not even understand it at all. I’m not convinced that it is a better album than ‘TB’ but it certainly maintains the amazingly high standard that that album set. If anything, ‘Salvation’ has a tendency to wander in more accentuated hushed tones than ‘TB’, almost inducing the listener into a state of meditative psychosis. Having said that, the heavy parts are still monstrously heavy in COL’s typically brooding and climax-like fashion – listen to the simply jaw dropping genius of ‘Waiting for You’ – simply one of the greatest and most powerful post Noisecore tracks ever written.

Nope, there is nothing wrong with this folks. ‘Salvation’ is an incredible piece of musical art. Cult of Luna was a phenomenal band prior to this album and this new disc does nothing but maintain the standard. This is essential for all fans vast, sprawling, epic pieces of heavy music.